it was gonna be a nice, relaxing, stres-free, rainy Sunday afternoon....

and then the Giants kicked off.

Got a nice dusting of think, heavy show here in southern NH. I'm sure we will get another warm snap in the NorthEast before the real cold sets in, but man, this weather is shocking.

Kinda pretty to have the autumn colors with snow on the ground.

Anyone watching the Dodgers-Phillies game---stress free, of course---or am I my own?

[3] I'm in, but not for too long.

[3] i'm in and out - also for a little while

btw apparently (according to chad at lh) girardi has announced cc will go game 4

I was about to ask why they're shouting "USA", but it's "Beat LA".

Woooohoooo.
Could be a long day for the Blues.

[3] I'm in. I don't want ANY part of Ryan Howard or that very loud stadium the Phils play in..very good team there..

Who are we rooting for? A long series, presumably, so since the Phils have captured the Home Field Adv., do we root for the Dodgers?

Well well.

I think our line-up would do well against Kuroda.

Jesus... the Phils can really pound the ball. Our pitching will need to be top notch in the WS.

Ryan Howard?!?!? With a triple?!?!? The man is HOT.

I'd like to just say that that Jets game this afternoon was among the worst games I've ever seen, in any sport.

I'm just focused on the ALCS, not the WS.

My God! Were they chanting "Yankees Suck" in Philly?

[14] There was another game at the same time. For some reason a Nashville high school team was sent to Foxboro to play the Patriots in the snow.

i was wondering if with all the lh batters the phillies might have some split issues but they don't seem to as a team - pretty similar triple slash numbers
individually howard still can't hit lhp and chutley has reverse splits

[14] i can't think of another franchise like the jets (even the clippers are a different breed) every year that it looks like they might be something they find a way to blow it

[17] not a NFL guy but..59-0?? how is that possible? and talk about running up the score..Belichick is a total Choad...

[16] The Yankees do suck.. They suck the life out of their opponents.

Kuroda better be lifted soon..(lots of "Kuroda Fails!" segments to look forward to on the news here tonight..)

Not being a Jet fan, I can look at them with some degree of detachment. I think they are headed in the right direction. Rookie QBs, especially those with the small amount of collegiate experience that Sanchez has, are going to struggle. But they have a dynamic head coach, a smart GM, and an owner that is willing to spend to make bold moves.

[20] The Titans are not good at playing football.

"Running up the score," seriously? It's the NFL, and the teams are trying to win. We aren't talking about middle school soccer. Brady left the game a little into the second half and some teenager still moved the ball at will against the TItan defense. Horrendous. Horrific. Horrible. They should replay the game for Halloween.

In 30 years, Kuroda will be the spittin' image of Yoda.

I've been in and out of the game while doing real paycheck work from home.

[10] I'm rooting for Phillies for a variety of reasons, none of which involve who would be the better match-up for the Yankees in the WS.

[9] Yes, a loud stadium, and one that---oddly---appears to have no empty seats for the play-offs. I'm still a little confused about that last bit.

[25] Excellent. He can get together with Ron Swoboda and they can share a soda.

Dodgers are getting killed so far, loving it.

[27] While sitting on the sofa?
.
.
.
OK, I tried.

[26] Hmmm..maybe, the Phillies made affordable tickets available for their fans?

[24] but..59 points?? I mean, how bad would the Titans have to be to allow that? At some point wouldn't pride make you just crush Brady after the whistle and take the personal foul? Or "accidentally" run into the coach?

The Jets..what is it about the Jets-Mets-Nets rhyming trifecta that results in tears for their fans, year after year..?

[23] all true. seemed like people were ready to crown their asses this year, and losing to the bills is sort of lame, but they seem to have some good foundations.
sanchez will need to learn to throw in shitty meadowlands weather at some point.

[30] Not exactly sure what you're driving at. The Titans were terrible. Their defense couldn't stop the Patriots at all (there was finally one punt late in the fourth quarter). They did, in fact, have several Roughing the Passer penalties, but honestly I would think "pride" would make you get out there and actually stop the other team, once in a while. I guess you could have a Surrender provision in football, whereby a coach who was losing could just toss out a white flag and the game would be over. But they don't have that yet.

[29]

Ensconced in a pagoda ...?

Sitting in the dugout, Kuroda looks shell-shocked, not without cause.

You bring in a rookie when down 5-0 in the 2nd inning? Not sure about that one Joe...

CYE time!

Phat Elbert ...

[32] Well, it just seems weird to see such a score in the NFL, where I thought the talent level was pretty similar from team to team.

Dodgers still have hope ... Phils will go into their prevent defense middle of 4th quarter ...

so obviously it will be either 2-1 or 3-0 come game 4, is everyone on board with cc for short rest either way?

[38]

Last time there was a regular season shutout of 59-0 of worse was 1976.

[32] I think that it is possible to 'run up the score' even in the NFL---like running a trick play at the end of the game while running out the clock or the like. Remember the old Sam Wyche-Jerry Glanville battles, back in the day?

[38] and they actually had a good record last year (13-3, i think - though i didn't think they were really a 13 win team, but tuna says you are your record)

[42]

Up 45-0 at half ... Brady came out for one series in 3rd quarter ... threw a TD, then called it a day.

[42] i didn't watch the game - so i don't what happened - but throwing the ball, especially deep is basically attempting to run up the score - much like still pressing or shooting 3s in basketball - for professionals i don't really care, but there are risks to doing that

i dig Jayson Werth. Phillies look steee-rong

My 2 fantasy QBs this afternoon:
Brady ... 45.50 points
Mark Sanchez ... -6.73 points

(I should have stuck with a Bye at QB2)

[46] i used to want the yanks to consider going after him - but i just realized he is already 30 and will be 32 in his fa year (2011)

As a gritty, bearded, (half!) white guy, I do NOT accept the craptacular AB there by Casey Blake!
Casey, where is the Gamerness?? You're letting us down!

Lee is going to cruise this game, CG ahoy..

Well.... this game is all but over.
I STILL would like to know who we match up with better.

[44][45] I didn't watch the game and have no idea if the Pats tried to run it up. Sounds like the Titans were just pretty bad today. It's tough to know when enough is enough at the pro level--there have been big comebacks, these guys also make money for performance thresholds, and it's hard to tell even back-ups not to try when they are in there. In any case, it seems like most coaches don't go out of their way to run up the score, mainly to avoid silly injuries to star players in games that are blow out.

Don't think Kuroda is going to make it into the Joe Torre circle of trust (TM)

The Philly Phanatic is kind of cool...if that's about as exciting as this game is going to get I think maybe it's time to head out into the nice autumn weather..

[50] OK, I'll take a stab just for Banter sake--

The Yankees seem to thrive in their cozy new park. Thus, I would not necessarily want to see all of Jeter's and Johnny's power (e.g.) sucked away by Chavez Ravine, and so I would have to go with the Phillies (or rather their stadium) as the better match up.

[54] Yes but..I don't even want to consider the state of my nerves when Phil Coke is brought in to face Utley and Howard in NYS...Dodgers only real terrifying hitter is Manny..We'd beat the Dodgers in 5, but the Phils are "gritty" in the for real sense..would be a dogfight..

[3] i'm here for the rest of the game...

Wow, Davey Lopes looks about 95 years old..

[54] I'd rather the phils too, so that I can at least attempt to see all 7 WS games in person

[58] if it goes that far, of course

[56] The game here has just been interrupted by an emergency viewing of an Elmo Sesame Street DVD...couldn't fight off Mr. OK Jazz Jr anymore..so keep me informed what's going on!

Hmmm .... has anyone ever seen Elmo and Erick Aybar in his cold weather gear in the same place?

[60] you gotta check out nomaas!

if Victorino boots a ball to lose the game, the headline has to be:

Victory-NO !!!

[40] yes. i'm board for CC to go on short rest for Game 4.

Genesis make really awful pop music. I'm watching a little of a concert on Palladia and it is ghastly. Their 80s pop stuff is crap.

[62] Awesome, they are on good form recently.

Man, Elmo is making me miss TimmyMac or Chip Caray...

[65]

Duke was their last great album ...

[40][64] Probably yes. I would be tempted to go with Gaudin if they are up 3-0...but memories of 2004 would probably disavow me of that notion.

I haven't paid attention to the scheduling--when does the WS start, and how many off-days between the series? If (and only if) the Yankees were up 3-0 v the Angels AND there was a way to set CC up for three starts versus the NL champs, I might start looking ahead a bit.

[23] I tend to agree in general, and thank you for the beam of sunlight. BUT ... starting 3-0 then losing 3 in a row, each one more of a failure than the last, stings.

And as for the game it would have been terrible even if the Jets had won. It was just really poorly played, injury-riddled, penalty-pocked, slow, boring game.

[65] yeah, it's pretty true. their 70's prog stuff is rather excellent, however.

[66] it's chipster, fisting his way through the 2-hole. (eeeeewwwwww!)

[65] Genesis is/was a funny group---they were really like two completely different bands: a Peter Gabriel group in the 1960s and early 1970s, and a Phil Collins group in the late1970s and 1980s.

[69] Agreed. Not having a real rooting interest in the game (my wife is from Buffalo, so I was slightly vocal for the Bills to keep the household peace), I was pretty much pulling for a tie.

[71] Phil Collins is a prominent sufferer of "Eric Clapton" disease..wonderfully talented musicians who, for whatever reasons, continually make awful records..other patients include Rod Stewart, Keith Emerson, Wynton Marsalis, Whitney Houston and of course, EC himself...

7-0 Philthy

Phigtin's are on phire.

[68] i'm with you basically -

schedules-

alcs:
10/19 (mon); 10/20 (tue); 10/22*(thu); 10/24*(sat); 10/25*(sun)

ws:
10/28 (wed); 10/29 (thu); 10/31(sat); 11/1(sun); 11/2*(mon); 11/4*(wed); 11/5*(thu)

[72] Hey does she know......... : )
My friend set up a 20 person escapade to Rich Stadium in a couple of weeks. I have not been there in about 25 years. I was hoping they'd win just b/c they've been so pathetic lately. As an aside, does it bother Jets/Giants fans too much that they play in NJ? Just wondering.

cliff lee has it goin' on.

[77] That whole "the Giants play in NJ thing" stopped being old right when coming from Bills fans around 11 PM on on January 27, 1991. Then, I didn't give a damn anymore.

[1] Second to that, but it has not bothered me, probably thanks to last night.

weeping, if you pop in on this thread - you were missed last night, and I'm glad you got to see what happened.

I may be wrong, but CC can't go 3 in the WS unless you want CC, AJ and Andy to all go on short rest. Am I correct?

[77] I'm a Giants fan and it never bothered me...it's all I've known and I never really gave it much thought. I just figured that the Giants were a NYC team, rather than NYS team...and Jersey is in the NYC metropolitan area. It's no different from any other suburban stadium.

[80] yeah, i think you're right. looks like Gaudin would have to get the Game 4 start. let's hope we make it to the WS and we're up 3-0 by then! : )

wow, nice catch. utley crushed that...

[71] There is that weird gray area where they lost Pete Gabriel but were still kind of proggy and decent in the late 70s (see [67], though I see Duke was out in '80). Or at least it wasn't pop pap.

[73] A lot of it is because good players/performers don't necessarily make good writers.

Clapton always considered himself a blues guitarist, but when I listen to some of the rockier tunes on Derek and the Dominos and Cream, I mean, the guy kicks some serious ass. The guitar work on Crossroads, by Cream, still blows me away.

I wonder if his son's death sucked some of the life out of him.

[77] It bothers me.

"utley gives chase..." good one, chip.

[80] That's what it looks like. I'd be willing to go that route, or else you have Gaudin starting at least one game.

[85] that was soooo terribly sad. : (

are they chanting, "you used steroids"?

maybe they should chant: "you are preg-nant!"

[90] ?

[79, 81, 86] Thanks. I'm not invested in any NY football teams but I was curious. As for 1991, I was at a high school party actively rooting agains the Bills just b/c.......just to be a young punk I s'pose. Laces Out, Dan!!!

[91] their chanting something, i can't quite make it out. i think it's the first thing i typed. since his "steroids" were apparently some kind of pregnancy drug, or something, i just typed the follow-up as a lame joke...

if we end up playing the Phils, i'd hope A LOT of Yankee fans make it to Citizen Bank.

wow, nice K of Manny...

A bit out of left field, but has anyone ever heard Charlotte Church sing?
I mean this chic has an amazing voice. Maybe better then Streisand. I believe she is classically trained, and I don't think she does much contemporary music.

I mention it because I saw a movie (on TV) called "I'll be There", where she does a version of the song (surprised to learn it was written by Bobby Darin... made famous by the Four Tops) and man o man... can this girl sing. She might have the best pure voice I've ever heard. Would love to hear her do some more modern stuff.

[93] Ha-ha...I didn't realize that about the pregnancy drug bit. OK, makes sense now.

[94] i recognize her name and i believe i've seen her albums, but i don't think i've heard her sing. i'm sure her voice is beyond amazing.

[85] I think Clapton's awful record choices far predate that horrible tragedy..also his drug&alcohol problems could have been a factor..It's a shame because, as you said, the guy was unreal when he was "on"..

The Phillies' BP is pretty flaky, but I'd think of pulling Lee here and start getting him ready for game 7.

[98] Whoops, not paying attention---I thought he was just starting the 8th inning, but that was the third out. 114 pitches.

[99] yeah, he pitched a gem. 10 strikeouts, 0 walks, 0 runs, 3 hits (2 by manny)